Lateral Habenula Helps Control Decision-Making

A recent study looks at smaller parts of the brain that scientists have discovered play a crucial role in decision-making.

University of British Columbia researchers believe that a region of the brain linked to both depression and the avoidance behaviors, also known as the lateral habenula, has been largely misunderstood and may play an integral role in such processes.

"These findings clarify the brain processes involved in the important decisions that we make on a daily basis, from choosing between job offers to deciding which house or car to buy," said Prof. Stan Floresco of UBC's Dept. of Psychology and Brain Research Centre (BRC), via a press release. "It also suggests that the scientific community has misunderstood the true functioning of this mysterious, but important, region of the brain."

Study authors examined trained lab rats that chose between a consistent small reward, as in a pellet of food, or a potentially larger reward, such as four pellets. Just like humans, the rats typically preferred the larger quantities of food

Previous studies have shown that turning off the lateral habenula can result in animals making a riskier choice. However, researchers found that when this happened for their study, the rats selected either option at random and were no longer to make good choices.

The findings have important implications for depression treatment. "Deep brain stimulation - which is thought to inactivate the lateral habenula -- has been reported to improve depressive symptoms in humans," Floresco said, via the release. "But our findings suggest these improvements may not be because patients feel happier. They may simply no longer care as much about what is making them feel depressed."

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Nature Neuroscience.